Category Archives: Server

Server traffic is a crucial element of the Internet but it’s pretty dull and hard to make interesting…unless you have Logstalgia (aka ApachePong) by Andrew Caudwell. It’s a “website traffic visualization that replays or streams web-server access logs as a pong-like battle between the web server and an never ending torrent of requests. Requests appear as colored balls (the same color as the host) which travel across the screen to arrive at the requested location. Successful requests are hit by the paddle while unsuccessful ones (eg 404 – File Not Found) are missed and pass through.”

Microsoft and their “Windows Everywhere” strategy — it’s a painful thing to watch. Microsoft is becoming the new Blackberry.

Technology is always improving at an ever-accelerating pace. Mobile devices combined with ubiquitous, ever-present Internet, combined with ever-increasing bandwidth have come together to disrupt the traditional PC market, which itself was a disruption.

Companies that ride the wave of technological disruption frequently become household names. Once upon a time one of them was Microsoft, which was able to ride the crest of the wave of the personal computer revolution. Microsoft software was once almost everywhere. Alas, the next wave of disruption came along in the form of mobile hand-held computers with always-on connectivity, and now Microsoft in many respects is drowning behind that next wave.

I believe people at Microsoft see the handwriting on the wall – traditional PC sales numbers are dropping like a stone into a bottomless pit. The vast majority of people don’t need a traditional computer because modern handheld touchscreen devices such as iPads and smartphones frequently do most of what consumers want faster and better.

So, with Windows 8 Microsoft tried to force Windows users away from the traditional PC desktop to a new touchscreen interface dubbed “Metro” that seems to be sort of half-baked. When users rebelled, they released a semi-compromise in the form of Windows 8.1. Apparently the thinking must have been that if they could get end-users of desktop Windows computers used to the new interface, they would naturally gravitate towards the same interface on Microsoft smartphones and tablets. Thus – “Windows Everywhere” has been implemented and is clearly floundering, with good reason.

Microsoft is still a profitable enterprise, largely because of the X-Box and server software. In my opinion, Microsoft should concentrate on these two profitable areas of their business and forget about selling tablets and smartphones.

A Radical Suggestion

However, if Microsoft can’t bring themselves to abandon the mobile device market, I have a radical suggestion for them. It’s clear to me the only remote chance Microsoft has of success in todays’s mobile market is if they would dump mobile versions of Windows and adopt Android. They could call it Mandroid.

Microsoft now owns Nokia, and even before the Nokia purchase Microsoft has demonstrated it can produce sleek hardware.

Microsoft, if you want ANY chance of the vast majority of consumers considering buying your mobile products, re-develop them with Android. You would have the huge instant advantage of the Android app market, and a stable mobile OS that already has plenty of marketplace traction.

Will Microsoft adopt Android? Not a chance. If Microsoft is lucky it will end up like IBM, a beached shell of its former self.

Sookbox is a small box that will acts as a media server for your videos and music. This not only includes music on your local server, but also music that is stored in the cloud and on services such as Pandora or Spotify. The software includes an internet browser. You can access your Sookbox through an ip address from anywhere. The Sookbox includes four HDMI outputs, 16 analog audio outputs and 1.5 TB of storage capability. You can connect to your TVs and receivers either wired or wirelessly. The wireless connection works with a dongle that you connect to the TV. Everything is controlled through an app which will be available on Android or iOs. Sookbox is currently still in beta. The control has an open api and they are looking for developers.

Last spring my home server, which ran on an HP desktop tower that I had repurposed after buying a Dell desktop, died. I ran FreeNAS because it worked well and was free, but I upgraded to,Windows Server 2012 Essentials after buying a used Dell Optiplex server that I got from a local business that was upgrading. Everything seemed state of the art until today when a Microsoft employee posted his home server specs.

Emmanuel Bergerat recently put together a home server that is geek heaven. This is not a tower computer sitting in your home office, as mine is. This is a full-blow rack housed in his basement.

What is included? Here are a few specs.

7 physical servers

The equivalent of 115 GHz of CPU power

112GB of RAM

44 TB of mixed SSDs and HDDs storage, in both DAS and SAN configurations

1GBps Ethernet & 10GBps InfiniBand networks

Redundant Internet connections

It mainly runs Windows Server 2012

but also runs 1 VMware ESXi and 1 XenServer hosts

Bergerat calls this an affordable solution, but I suppose everything is relative. He also goes into a lot of detail in his post regarding what he learned when building this and what he suggests. He also made me feel very inadequate about my home.